Category Archives: Facebook page likes

Add Sections, Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Controlled sharing, Facebook, Facebook page likes, Facebook Photo Privacy Settings, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks

Facebook Privacy Settings – Part 4 What can or can’t be private

Leave a comment

We’ve covered a lot this week, haven’t we? The final step is outlining what you can control and what you can’t. Before we begin, take a look at this:

Photo of Facebook Privacy Control 1
It looks like anything can be seen by anyone, right?

Take this as a warning. As far as actions go, even if you remove something from your timeline, it still might be seen elsewhere on Facebook. Let’s just say that Facebook’s privacy control is full of holes. Therefore, expect the worst. If you feel that something you’re about to do is risky, don’t do it.

Things you can control completely, more or less: 

1. Photos you post yourself that are NOT profile pic thumbnails or timeline cover photos. Every other photo can be limited to you or to some friends or to everyone on Facebook. Profile pic thumbnails and timeline covers are PUBLIC. Anyone who you have not blocked can see them.

2. Videos that you post. You can set the privacy for any video when you post it or after the fact. The key word is POST. If you share something, you cannot control who sees it.

3. Notes that you post. Again, you can set the privacy when you post the note or afterwards.

4. Status updates. The last thing you can control, more or less completely, are your status updates.

5. Likes/Interests. By likes we mean pages that you like, musicians, movies, books that you like, etc. You can hide some or all of them. We’ve written many posts on this explaining how to do it, how to get them back and so on. Use the search box on any page to bring up the instructional posts on this topic.

Get used to using this box when you are posting anything on Facebook: 

Facebook Privacy Control 2
Use this box for everything you post on Facebook.

 

Things you post that you cannot control using privacy settings: 

1. Timeline cover photos. These photos, the big image behind your profile pic, are PUBLIC. Anyone who can see your profile, even if you’ve hidden everything else, can still see this picture. There is nothing you can do about it so be careful what you post here.

2. Profile thumbnail pics. Your profile photo can be controlled via the privacy dialogue pictured above, either when you post it or afterwards. The thumbnail, the smaller photo that everyone sees, is PUBLIC. Remember that. Use our guide to protect your profile photo thumbnail: Profile Photo Trick 

3. Likes and comments on things that someone else posted. This is the most confusing part of Facebook, right? Everyone seems to have a problem with this. If you didn’t post it, it’s out of your control. If you comment, like or share something that someone else posted, everything is controlled by the original poster’s privacy settings. You cannot hide that fact that you like someone’s photo. They will know it, their friends will know it, your friends will know it….well, you get the point. Once you step out of the relative safety zone of your own posts, you’re lost in the void that is Facebook. Be careful.

4. Mutual friends. While you can hide your full list of friends from your other friends, you cannot hide any mutual friends.

5. Some photos. Read 1 and 2 again, just to be sure.

6. The ‘About’ you box on your Facebook profile. You can hide some things about yourself, not everything. We’ve done post on this in the past but we’ll do another update soon. Read this post, Facebook – Get your Likes Back , to figure out how to hide or unhide your likes/interests.

Here’s something you should see, brought to you by Facebook: 

Photo of Facebook Sections Warning
Everything looks good until you read the very last line at the bottom.

 

See the greyed out sections at the top? You can’t hide those sections, at least not everything in them. Check or uncheck the other sections, according to your preferences. After you do that, read the line at the bottom. We’ve copied it here, just in case you miss it:

“If you hide a section, individual stories can still appear on your Timeline, in News Feed and elsewhere on Facebook”.  

In other words, you can’t really hide very much of your activity on Facebook. You should look at your actions on Facebook in two different streams; things that you post and things that you do. As we’ve said above, you can hide most of the things you post. As far as the things that you do (liking something, commenting on something, sharing something), you cannot hide any part of it. Even if you think you can, Facebook tells you that it might appear ‘elsewhere on Facebook’.

Wow, it’s been a long week for us. Lots of research and some wordy but, hopefully, informative articles too. Please comment, ask questions, yell, scream or just say hi in the comment box at the bottom. We’re here to help, don’t forget that.

Thanks for reading!

 

Facebook, Facebook page likes, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Hide Facebook Likes

Facebook – Get your Likes back

Leave a comment

Here’s a short post on getting your Facebook Likes back. We’ll show you how to sort out the different sections that appear when someone checks out your profile.

1. Head to your own Timeline and look for the words ‘Update Info’.

Photo of Get Your Likes Back 1
Click on Update Info.

2. Once you click Update Info, look over on the right for the icon of a pencil.

Photo of Get Your Likes Back 2
The word Edit appears when you hover over the icon. Click it.

 

3. Even if you don’t want to edit anything, click the icon and you’ll get this menu. Click ‘Edit Sections’ when you see it:

Photo of Get Your Likes Back 3
Click Edit Sections.

4. Up pops a list of all of the sections that you can choose to show or hide. Notice that three sections can’t be hidden: About, Photos and Friends are all permanent. You can, however, hide parts of these sections as we’ve told you before. You can hide your full Friend list, for instance, but you cannot hide any mutual friends that you might have with someone who sees your profile.

Photo of Get Your Likes Back 4
Pick the ones you want to show or hide.

5. Finally, don’t forget to click Save to make your changes take effect.

Photo of Get Your Likes Back 5
Click Save and you’re done.

 

That’s it. Your list will vary from ours, of course. The main sections will be the same but you won’t have Spotify, probably, but you might have ones that are not on our list.

Thanks for reading! Hey, Like our Facebook page and we’ll like you! Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook.

 

Facebook, Facebook page likes, Hide Facebook Likes

The Ultimate Facebook Likes Guide – as of April 23, 2013

73 Comments

It seems that Facebook changes their own rules every week. They probably don’t change every week but in the last few months, many of our previous posts on Facebook likes have been made obsolete. Here we go with our latest how-to on this topic. If you’re lost your ‘Likes’, we’ll get them back. If you want to hide them from everyone but yourself, we’ll show you how. Grab a coffee, open your own Facebook profile and let’s get started.

How to Hide (or un-Hide) Your Likes on Facebook

1. Everything you do is done from your Timeline so start there. You will notice that the various boxes (photos, friends,likes, etc.) have been replaced by the words Timeline, About, Friends, Photos and, finally, More. Clicking on More brings down a menu, as seen here:

Photo of Facebook Likes 1
No likes here!

2. We’ve hidden our Likes from this menu. How do we get them back? Click on the words Update Info:

Photo of Facebook Likes 2
Update Info is where we start.

 

3. On the right side of the page that comes up, click on the pen/pencil icon on the far right. When the menu pops down, choose Edit Sections:

Photo of Facebook Likes 3
Click Edit Sections to bring up a new menu, one we haven’t seen before.

 

4. Here’s the new menu:

Photo of Facebook Likes 4
Here’s where you choose which topics show up on your Timeline when a friend clicks the word ‘More’.

Simply decide which sections of your favorites you want to show to your friends. There are three sections that you can’t hide, About, Friends and Photos, but you can certainly hide parts of each ‘section’ listed on that list. What can’t you hide? You can’t hide your Mutual Friends from anyone. Bummer, huh? Yes, you can hide your Friend list but you can’t hide Mutual friends. Keep that in mind, folks.

5. Notice that this time we’ve selected ‘Likes’. Click Save and then go back to your Timeline and click the word More.

Photo of Facebook Likes 6
What’s this? The ‘Likes’ are back? Cool!

Guess what? Our Likes are shown in the drop-down list. Pat yourself on the back! You’ve completed your assignment. This has been a short and simple way to get the Likes ‘box’ back. You’re right, it’s not a box but people still use that term to describe it so we will too. Obviously, perform the opposite steps if you want to hide your list of likes. What do you see when you actually click on the word ‘Likes’ on that menu? Here’s what we see:

Photo of Facebook Likes 7
Here they are, broken down into groups. These groups may vary from person to person.

 

Now you’re asking, “Who can see what?” right? Time to hover. Move your mouse (cursor) to the right of the words under each ‘Like’. You’ll see an icon that reflects your privacy settings for each of the ‘Likes’ shown.

Photo of Facebook Likes 8
Click on the icon if you want to change the privacy settings for each ‘Like’.

 

OK folks, that’s it for today. We’ve got the Likes box back or we’ve hidden it, it’s up to you. Next, let’s take a look at some privacy settings in your Likes area.

Questions, comments, oatmeal cookies…we love them all. Let us know what you can or can’t do and we’ll see what solutions we can come up with. Follow us on Facebook (just click Like) and keep up with all of our updates, posts and interesting stuff. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Controlled sharing, Facebook, Facebook page likes, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Hide Game Updates, Hide Likes from Timeline

How to Hide Anything on Facebook

9 Comments

It seems we’ve been writing about Facebook for longer than Facebook has been around. Judging from the popularity of our “Hiding Likes on Facebook” posts, everyone has something to hide. In this post, which will be a long one, all we’re going to do is post screen captures of as many Facebook menus as we can find. In some photos you won’t see a menu but in the next one, we’ll show you where to find it.

Before we begin, there are two caveats here. First, while we’ll show you how to hide almost everything on Facebook, some of those things may pop up in other areas. Consider the fact that liking a page is different from showing that like later on in a series of your ‘likes’. Liking and showing likes are two different things. For this reason, we suggest that you don’t do something on Facebook that would cause you grief later on in your life or your career.

Secondly, there are two things that you cannot hide on Facebook. First, photos that you post cannot be completely hidden. You can selectively choose who can see the photo but you can’t completely hide it. Think about it. Facebook employees can see the photo, right? Even if the privacy settings for that photo are set to ‘Only Me’, someone at Facebook can see it.

Lastly, you cannot hide mutual friends from anyone. Yes, you can partially hide your friend list but you can’t hide the fact that you have a mutual friend with someone. If being friends with someone will cause problems in your life, especially if that person is a friend of a friend, you can’t hide it. We can see many situations where this would cause a problem so keep this in mind when you’re ‘friending’ someone.

TIP: Why did we say that you could partially hide your friend list? Read this post and you will see why. You can set your friend list’s privacy to ‘Only Me’ but that won’t prevent Facebook from suggesting every one of your friends to someone else. Here’s the link to the post: Stalking Friends on Facebook

Here we go with the screen caps:

Photo of HIde 1
Most things that you’ve done are shown on your Activity Log, available from your Timeline.

 

Photo of HIde 2
On the right side of almost all items shown, there is an edit icon which allows you to hide that activity from your Timeline.

 

TIP: Remember that you can’t hide comments that you make on something that you did not post. Keep that in mind. If you like a photo that someone else posted, you can’t hide it. Same thing for a comment on a photo. You can’t hide that either. All of those things are controlled by the privacy settings that the other person used. Make sure you understand this before you go randomly clicking ‘Like’ on photos or making comments on things posted by other people.

Photo of HIde 3
On your Timeline, you can find the edit icon up on the top right of most boxes.

 

Photo of HIde 4
You can check on story types that you have hidden. Seems we haven’t hidden any…yet.

 

Photo of HIde 5
Here, we’ve hidden three types of activity.

 

Photo of HIde 6
Click the arrow to open up all the boxes in your Favourites. Only then can you edit them.

 

Photo of HIde 7
You can swap positions or remove the box from your Favorites.

 

 

Photo of HIde 8
If the box menu isn’t open, you can’t edit any of the Favorite boxes. Click the arrow just to the right of the 4.

 

 

Photo of HIde 9
See? Now the Places or Maps box can be edited.

 

Photo of HIde 10
You can check what posts you’ve hidden by looking at your Activity Log and choosing the correct link on the left.

 

Photo of HIde 11
Here is the full list of activities that you can check by clicking More down near the bottom (shown as Less here).

 

Photo of HIde 12
Hide all of your game posts here. Click the Stop Publishing Activity. Please do this for your friends!

 

 

Photo of Hide 13
Hide all Friending activity here.

 

Photo of Hide 14
Here’s where you can hide your friend list from everyone or from some people, Choose ‘Custom’ to select specific people or lists.

 

This has been a long post, we know that, but we think you’ll be able to find most of what you’re looking for here. If not, let us know! We love questions.

Thanks for reading! Follow us on Facebook. Just click Like and you’ll get our updates and tech tips as soon as we post them: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

Controlled sharing, Facebook, Facebook page likes, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Hide Likes from Timeline, Layered Privacy

Hiding Likes on Facebook – it’s back!

31 Comments

We’ve written quite a few posts on hiding your likes in Facebook. After months of confusion, it seems that Facebook has reverted back to their old system of hiding or showing likes. Here’s the latest, January 2013, version of hiding your likes:

1. Go to your Timeline page by clicking on your name up on the top right. Once you’re there, look for the boxes of favorites, the ones marked Friends, Photos, etc. Here’s what you are looking for:

Photo of Likes Box
If your Likes box is on the top or bottom row, doesn’t matter. Click either the word Likes or inside the box.

 

2. If you can see your Likes box, click on it. If you can”t see your Likes box, it might be in the second row of Favorites. (There are only two rows and only eight possible boxes.)  Click on the little arrow to the right of the first row to bring the next row into view. Like this:

Photo of two rows of Favorites.
The second row is now visible, so click on the word Likes or in the box.

When you can finally see your Likes box, click on it.

 

3. Once you see the page that reads ‘Favorites’ (mine says ‘Favourites’ because we’re in Canada), look up on the top right for the word Edit and click on it.

Photo of Favourites Page
Click the word Edit.

 

4. For each section of your Favorites, there is an icon that controls who sees it. Click the icon to set the privacy level of each Favorite. Standard Favorites are Music, Books, Movies and Television, etc. but you can always add other categories.

Photo of Facebook Likes Page 4
Set the privacy level for each category here.

You cannot hide some ‘Likes’ in each category and unhide others. If you like Madonna, that will be visible to all of your friends if you choose to make your Music ‘likes’ visible. To hide the fact that you like Madonna, you have to hide all of your Music ‘Likes’.

5. Finally, as far as ‘Page Likes’ go, you can hide them all or make them all visible to whoever you want. You cannot hide some pages and make others visible. Better to hide all of your page likes, just to avoid trouble. This is the way we’ve got our’s set:

Photo of Page Likes
Even though this icon controls the pages that you like, the heading is ‘Likes’. Confusing, isn’t it?

 

Very Important Tip (please read this): If the page you like is set to a category that you haven’t hidden, the fact that you like that page will be visible to whoever your settings allow. Let us explain that further. Let’s say that Madonna has her page set to be a ‘Music’ page or a ‘Movie’ page. Even though her Facebook page looks the same as our Facebook page (Computers Made Simple), the fact that you like it will show up in your ‘Favorite: Movie” box. Keep that in mind, please.

We’re going to update all of our other ‘Facebook Like’ pages to lead to this one. As of January 2013, this page is valid, at least in North America. Facebook may have different settings, depending on which country you are in at the present time. Europe seems to have better privacy guidelines, from what we’ve seen. Bravo to Europe for making Facebook tow the line!

If you have comments, problems or suggestions for topics, let us know. Thanks for reading!

 

While you’re here, why not add our Facebook page to your Likes? Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook.